EARTH AND SUN DIGEST 2004/10/07 Mt. St. Helens Eruptions
Posted by Canie on October 11, 2004 at 11:37:12:

The Past Week Ticker

M27, T28/6.0M,6.4M, W29/V8, Th30, F01, Sa02, Su03, M04/6.0M, T05, W06, Th07

MTWThFSaSu-days of week; 6M-quake, V8-volcano, MC or XC-solar flare, GS-geomagnetic storm



Moon for October 2004 per Astronomy Magazine in EDT

5 apogee, 6 last quarter, 13 new moon, 17 perigee, 20 first quarter, 28 full moon

The Moon is at perigee (228,514 miles near) on 17 October.



Partial solar eclipse on 13 October.





EARTH AND SUN DIGEST for October 7, 2004

Mount St. Helens Eruptions

...Week at a Glance (with time ticking)



California and Nevada earthquakes in past week--950; two quakes of 4M or greater: 04/10/02 4.1M CENTRAL CALIFORNIA, 04/09/30 4.9M CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

Interactive map at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm , see left lower corner

Global Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9M thru Wednesday--18 (Japan-2, SoPacific-3); one 6M quake: 10/04 6.0M ROTA REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

Earthquake data from http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/bulletin.html .

Volcanic ash near Jet Stream (at 5 mi/8 km)--none, but 7.5 km in Ecuador

Ash data from http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs



Sunspot No. high and low--41 on 4 October from 35 on 2 October

Largest and smallest daily area of sunspots--190 on 30 September to 120 on 5 October (100=Earth)

X-Class Solar Flares: none; last M-Class flares (5+/day) five on 15 August (Ticker has fewer MC.)

(See updating site at http://www.sel.noaa.gov/today.html )

Planetary Geomagnetic A Indices: high of 15 on 3 October; five or more Kp's of 4 (or more) per 24 hours: none; high no. of Kp's of 3 per 24 hours this week: four on 2, 3 and 4 October



(Data is upgraded at the source as needed without notice.)





RECENT VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS



Northern Ash and Gas Eruptions north of latitude 23°N.



ST. HELENS Washington, USA 46.20°N, 122.18°W; summit elev. 2,549 m

a swarm of very small, shallow earthquakes (less than M 1) on the morning of 23 September, peaking about mid-day on 24 September and slowly declining through the morning of the 25th; the swarm then changing to include more than 10 larger earthquakes (M 2-2.8), the most in a 24-hour period since the last eruption in October 1986; the events continuing through 27 September at shallow depths (less than 1.6 km) below the lava dome, no magmatic gas recorded (continued in SPECIAL NOTE.)



SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 56.653°N, 161.360°E; summit elev. 2,283 m

during 23 September to 1 October several explosions seen producing ash plumes to a maximum height of 4.5 km, while seismic data suggested that plumes to 6.5 km, an explosion on 25 September with small pyroclastic flows



VENIAMINOF Alaska Peninsula, USA 56.17°N, 159.38°W; summit elev. 2,507 m

during 24 September to 1 October high winds strong enough to produce an overshadowing effect on seismic records that could hide evidence of low-level tremor, cloudy conditions obscuring views of the volcano in web camera and satellite data





Equatorial Ash and Gas Eruptions at less than 23°N or S





RINJANI Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia, 8.42 S; 116.47 E; summit elev. 3,726 m

on 30 September at 2130 a plume to ~4.3 km, visual observations on 5 October of plume reach ~4.5 km



COLIMA western México 19.514°N,103.62°W; summit elev. ~3,850 m

a new growing lava dome sighted in summit crater on 28 September,

following three days of vigorous fumarolic emissions, starting on 30 September, block-and-ash flows down the volcano's flanks, on 5 October, block-and-ash flows traveling as far as 2 km, and about 30 small explosions producing plumes to a maximum height of 4.2 km



FUEGO Guatemala 14.47°N, 90.88°W; summit elev. 3,763 m

during 30 September to 4 October several explosions producing ash plumes to a maximum height of 5.8 km, on 30 September lava

avalanches, on 1 October incandescent lava bombs



KILAUEA Hawaii, USA 19.43°N, 155.29°W; summit elev. 1,222 m

during 30 September to 5 October PKK lava flow on the Pulama pali scarp and all vents in the crater of Pu`u `O`o incandescent



PITON DE LA FOURNAISE Réunion Island, Indian Ocean 21.23°S, 55.71°E; summit elev. 2,631 m

the main recent eruption phase at Piton de la Fournaise beginning on 13 August 1804 and stopping on 2 September, followed by two minor phases from the main vent on the volcano's E flank, ceasing on 3 October around 0100



SANTA MARÍA Guatemala 14.756°N 91.552°W; summit elev. 3,772 m

during 30 September to 4 October moderate explosions producing ash-and-gas plumes to a maximum height of 4.8 km, some explosions accompanied by avalanches of volcanic material, explosions on 4 October producing small 3-minute-long pyroclastic flows



SOUFRIÈRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies 16.72°N, 62.18°W; summit elev. 1,052 m

Volcanic activity during 24 September to 1 October slightly elevated, as has been the case for several weeks, sulfur-dioxide flux ranging between 200 and 540 metric tons per day, with a weekly average of 340 metric tons



TUNGURAHUA Ecuador 1.47°S, 78.44°W; summit elev. 5,023 m

during 29 September to 5 October volcanic activity at relatively low levels, with occasional small explosions of gas, steam, and ash



All ash elevations are in km above sea level (a.s.l.) and times are converted to UTC.





EARTH

The FIVE Index has the last column giving the eight daily
Kp (three hourly) geomagnetic values in the same 
UTC time frame as the quake listings.
FIVE Index of Global earthquakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater

DATE-(UTC)-TIME    LAT  LON    DEP   MAG  Q  COMMENTS  Day's Kp values 
yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss  deg. deg.   km 
READ UP for latest report.
04/10/07  01:05:1436.63N26.83E131.8  5.6DODECANESE ISLANDS, GREECE
04/10/06  14:40:3935.89N139.94E57.8  5.8NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 
04/10/06  11:14:2628.76N58.07E10.0   5.2SOUTHEASTERN IRAN 
04/10/06  05:24:2836.46N70.75E194.1  5.3HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 
04/10/05  21:14:347.41S106.19E50.0   5.2JAVA, INDONESIA 
04/10/05  10:41:3537.42N20.55E42.7   5.0IONIAN SEA 
04/10/05  04:02:295.49N82.55W10.0    5.4SOUTH OF PANAMA 
04/10/04  19:20:3514.57N146.95E7.2   6.0ROTA REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
04/10/04  06:47:233.54N128.53E15.0   5.0NORTH OF HALMAHERA, INDONESIA 
04/10/03  18:34:1656.57S141.93W10.0  5.5PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE
04/10/03  09:02:0345.20N29.02E8.3    5.0UKRAINE-ROMANIA BORDER REGION
04/10/03  08:30:296.71N73.00W155.3   5.0NORTHERN COLOMBIA 
04/10/03  04:28:4616.25S173.17E60.2  5.3FIJI REGION
04/10/03  03:30:1022.27S68.30W107.8  5.1ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
04/10/02  15:22:1527.92N127.70E78.7  5.1RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN 
04/10/01  19:46:0522.45S173.21E10.0  5.9SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS
04/10/01  09:40:283.58N128.20E20.0   5.6NORTH OF HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
04/10/01  08:01:0111.97N86.72W86.8   5.6NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
04/09/30  16:48:1128.40S176.47W34.5  5.3KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION 
United States Quakes this past week 
with quakes possibly felt in U.S. from nearby countries:  
(only highest magnitude quakes shown for Mount St. Helens)
04/10/01  06:45:1046.20N122.19W0.7   3.5MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
04/10/01  06:14:5946.20N122.19W0.2   3.5MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
04/10/05  15:15:3540.38N125.06W8.2   3.2OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
04/10/04  19:20:3514.57N146.95E7.2   6.0ROTA REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
04/10/03  12:26:5351.29N176.66W41.3  4.7ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS. 
04/10/03  00:32:1533.23N115.69W4.7   3.1SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
04/10/02  22:12:4035.94N120.49W10.6  3.1CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
04/10/02  22:09:2657.08N145.78W23.0  4.5GULF OF ALASKA
04/10/02  12:22:0935.54N120.81W9.2   4.1CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
04/10/02  07:04:2635.79N120.34W10.6  3.2CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
04/10/02  04:15:4054.13N165.48W84.1  4.5FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 
04/10/01  20:58:3918.78N145.15E500.0 4.6PAGAN REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
04/10/01  20:58:2035.89N120.46W5.2   2.9CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 
04/10/01  20:43:1935.87N120.41W9.5   3.4CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 
04/10/01  19:22:1837.41N117.12W11.2  3.9NEVADA 
04/10/01  14:12:2538.03N118.64W6.8   3.4CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 
04/10/01  01:12:2635.39N118.62W4.4   3.0CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
04/09/30  18:54:2835.98N120.55W10.1  4.9CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
04/09/30  09:55:0452.78N171.32W25.0  4.1FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 
04/09/30  05:02:2735.95N120.51W9.7   3.5CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 
04/09/30  00:25:5813.08N144.02E144.3 4.4GUAM REGION 
04/09/30  09:55:0452.78N171.32W25.0  4.1FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 
04/09/30  05:02:2735.95N120.51W9.7   3.5CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 
YEARS OF MONTHLY COUNTS of Earthquakes of 6 or greater Magnitude
in the World, per USGS/NEIC Preliminary Global Report
 YEAR:   93  94  95  96  97  98  99  00  01  02  03  04
June      1  11  12  12   3   3   3  22  10  14  12  10
July      2  10  12   7   5   9   8   9  10   5  15  11 with two 7M
August    2  14  16   6   7   8   9  12   8  12   8   4
September 4   8   8   9   7   4  12   7  10  13  18  15 with two 7M's
October   4  12  21   9   6   3   4   8  11  21  11  (1)
YR total 19 110 160 109  76  63 103 109 112 133 145 (95)
SUN
Sunspot numbers, daily for the past week:
9/29  30   1   2   3   4   5   6
  22  36  37  35  39  41  40  39
Planetary geomagnetic A Indices, daily (eight Kp's for same period)
   5   4   4  12  15  10   5   5
Solar data from
size=2>http://www.sec.noaa.gov/



SPECIAL NOTE:



ST. HELENS Washington, USA 46.20°N, 122.18°W; summit elev. 2,549 m; All times are local (= UTC -7 hours)



on 1 October emission of a plume of steam and minor ash from 11:57 to 12:21 PDT with a pale-gray cloud to about 9700 ft, the clouds not particularly hot; prior to the eruption on 29 September a significant increase in seismicity overnight

on 2 October a small steam emission at 1215 that day

during the evening of 3 October a steam (and possibly ash) emission around 2240 barely to the crater rim

on 4 October a small 2-minute-long eruption around noon, sending a steam and minor ash plume to an altitude of about 3 km

on 4 October 30- and 10-minute-long steam-and-ash emissions at 0943 and 1410, respectively, the larger emission dusting roads SE of the volcano with ash--maximum thickness of the ash at 8 km distance was 0.2 mm; eruption because hot rock pushed up into the glacier, melted ice, and generated the steam

on 5 October shortly after 9:00 a.m. PDT, the most vigorous steam and ash emission of the current period of activity originating from the same vent as others this past week, as well as from another nearby new vent in the intensely deforming area on the south side of the 1980-86 lava dome; steam clouds billowing from the crater for more than one hour. Ash content varied with intensity of steam jetting from the vent, and ash plumes at times above the 1980 crater rim and for the first timesufficient for detecting by National Weather Service Doppler Radar; steam and ash clouds to about 12,000 feet and a light dusting of ash fell in Morton, Randle, and Packwood, Washington, towns ~30 miles N of the volcano

following the 5 October steam-and-ash eruption, seismicity down to a low level and remained low

brief visual observations the morning of 6 October from Coldwater Visitor Center showing weak steam emissions from the crater; USGS inferring the vigorous unrest lessened and the probability of an imminent eruption that would endanger life and property significantly less than at any time since 2 October and the alert level was lowered to Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2)

Source: US Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory

St. Helens Information from the Global Volcanism Program



Comments or questions are welcome.



Donald J. Boon, editor.